Sunday Reads

 Obituary:  Noted cabinet member George Shultz, who served under presidents Reagan and Nixon and the oldest surviving cabinet member of any administration, has died at the premature age of 100.  He died at his home at Stanford University.

He held a number of government positions, but he is best known as President Reagan's secretary of state.

Snip:

George Pratt Shultz was born Dec. 13, 1920, in New York City and raised in Englewood, New Jersey. He studied economics and public and international affairs at Princeton University, graduating in 1942. His affinity for Princeton prompted him to have the school´s mascot, a tiger, tattooed on his posterior, a fact confirmed to reporters decades later by his wife aboard a plane taking them to China.

At Shultz´s 90th birthday party, his successor as secretary of state, James Baker, joked that he would do anything for Shultz 'except kiss the tiger.' After Princeton, Shultz joined the Marine Corps and rose to the rank of captain as an artillery officer during World War II.

He earned a Ph.D. in economics at MIT in 1949 and taught at MIT and at the University of Chicago, where he was dean of the business school. His administration experience included a stint as a senior staff economist with President Dwight D. Eisenhower´s Council of Economic Advisers and as Nixon´s OMB director.

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Mike Lindell is begging for a lawsuit.  That is putting it mildly.

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The religious right has always been a cancer on the American politic, but it has gotten worse with the Capitol insurrection.

I don't call them "Christian nationalists."  They are properly called the religious right, a term that has been around since the late 1970s.  Dominionists or reconstructionists are also apt labels, but they fall under the umbrella of the religious right.

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Another obit:  Former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, 67, died on Friday.  He had been battle a number of cancers, including prostate cancer, for the past five years.  His wife was with him when he passed:

Snip:

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Spinks represented the United States during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, as a light heavyweight and won a gold medal.

He faced Muhammad Ali in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 15, 1978, winning to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion. It was only Spinks' eighth professional bout and one of the greatest upsets in boxing history.

Here is the fight in question:

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Yet another obit from the world of sports: Former NYRA track announcer Marshall Cassidy, 75, has passed away.  He was known for his unique delivery and accuracy in calling horse races.

He came from a family of racing officials:

Snip:

Cassidy was a member of a distinguished multi-generational family of racing officials in New York. His maternal grandfather, Marshall Whiting Cassidy, was a race starter and later a steward, who eventually became racing director for NYRA's predecessor agencies, and later the executive director of The Jockey Club. Cassidy's maternal great-grandfather, Marshall (Mars) Cassidy, was also a fixture in New York racing as a race starter, the first to use a barrier to start a race, and immortalized in coverage by Damon Runyon.

He was known as one of the best track announcers in the business. He replaced Chic Anderson, who passed away from a heart attack in 1979. He remained a track announcer until 1990.